Railway signaling device.



No. 814,376. PATENTED MAR. 6, 1906. Q

S. G. HARVEY.

RAILWAY SIGNALING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED APB..12, 1905.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

'lliz'tzzasses: jnwmmr S. G. HARVEY.

'PATENTED MAR. a, 1906.

RAILWAY SIGNALING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 12, 1905.

witnesses:

4 SHEETS-SHBET 2.

No. 814,376. lATENTED MAR. 6, 1906.

S. G. HARVEY.

RAILWAY SIGNALING DEVICE.

APZPLIOATION FILED APR.12, 1905.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

witnesses;

W6 96. Ww.

PATENTED MAR. 6, 1906.

8. G. HARVEY.

RAILWAY SIGNALING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED 911.12. 1905.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

witnesses.-

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL GHOATE HARVEY, OF BOWLING GREEN, OHIO. RAILWAY SIGNALING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented March 6, 1906.

Application filed April 12, 1905- Serial To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, SAMUEL CHOATE HAR- VEY, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Bowling Green, in the county of Wood and State ofOhio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in RailwaySignaling Devices; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the figures ofreference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

In the operation of electric railways, more particularly single-trackroads, where many cars are passing in opposite directions, it isnecessary in the absence of despatchers to have some means of preventingcars from meeting at points between switches or turnouts. The presentusual'rnethod of avoiding this difficulty is for the conductor ormotorman to electrically signal from each switch or turnout to the nextswitch or turnout, so that a car moving in the opposite direction maynotleave such switch, and thereby cause a meeting between switches. Toeffect this signaling, the car is stopped and the conductor or motormanalights from his car and manually operates or throws the electricswitch, which operates the electric signal at the neXt switch orturnout. This necessitates a serious loss of time and at night and instormy weather is laborious and burdensome to the operator.

The object of my invention is to overcome the difliculties hereindicated and .to provide means for automatically actuating the electricswitch which controls the electric current which governs the signalingdevices and to accomplish this without stopping the car.

My invention also relates to certain details of construction hereinaftershown and descibed, and pointed out in the claims.

I attain the objects above referred to by means of the devices andarrangement of parts hereinafter described and shown, and illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a top plan view of asection of railway-track provided with my signaling devic Fig. 2 is aside elevation on line as as, Fig. 1 Fig. 3, a side elevation on line asm, Fig. 1; Fig. 4, a cross-section of a,track,

showing one of the transverse shafts hereinalike and each being in Fig.7, tak

after referred to, together with its connec tions and arms for trippingthe same; Fig. 5, a side elevation of one of the springs designed tohold the shafts, hereinafter referred to, in normally operativeposition, together with the sliding support for the spring, by means ofwhich it is prevented from doubling or becoming displaced; Fig. 6, adiagrammatic View of a target-arm with its actuating-lever and a sideview of the tiltingfingers hereinafter referred to, showing thetarget-arms, lever, and tilting-fingers in different positions by solidand dotted lines Fig. 7, a side elevation of the forward platform of acar provided with the mechanism hereinafter descibed for actuating thevarious targets, hereinafter referred to, and for opening and closingthe necessary circuits for operating the distant signals; Fig. 8, afront elevation of the front lower part of the same; Fig. 9, a top planview of the motormans levers, showing in dotted lines the positions towhich the levers may be thrown; Fig. 10, a top plan view of the deviceshown en in horizontal section beneath the platform; and Fig. 11, adiagrammatic view showing a single-track road with its turnouts and themethod of wiring, hereinafter referred to.

Like numerals of reference indicate like parts throughout the drawings.

In the drawings, 1 1 are the rails of a railway. Beneath andtransversely of these rails are journaled, as at 2, two parallel shafts3 and 3 one end of these shafts passing a short distance beyond one ofthe rails and a further distance at the other side of theother rail. Atthe former end of the shaft 3 is secured an upwardly-projecting trip-arm4, designed and arranged to impart to the shaft 3 a part of arevolution. On the inner side of the other rail is secured stub-shaft 5,upon which is j ournaled an upwardly-projecting trip-arm 4 the hub ofwhich, 6, is formed as a segmental gear 7, which engages a like gear 8,secured to the shaft 3. By the gear here illustrated it will be seenthat upon throwing the arm 4 in either direction the motion of the shaftwill be reversed from the motion it would have if the arm 4 were giventhe same throw. The description here given of shaft 3 and its attachments applies equally to the shaft 3 both shafts being actuated andcontrolled provided with the india short caters and signalingconnections hereinafter referred to.

' 9 9 are target arms pivotally supported side by side upon levers 10,as at 10. Each end of the target-arms is turned upwardly and carries atarget or indicator 11, num bered or lettered as indicated in Figs. 3and 4 of the drawings. Upon the shafts 3 3 are secured curved fingers12, having their ends toward each other and between which fingers thelower ends of the levers 10 project. When a shaft is rocked in onedirection, one of its fingers will swing the lever 10, and with it thetarget-arms 8, so that the letter or figure carried at one end of thetarget-arm will be low ered and the letter or figure at the opposite endof the target-arm will be raised. When the shaft is swung in theopposite direction, the opposite result takes place. The targetarmsbeing disposed side by side and in parallel relation, it will be seenthat either of the' characters on either of the targets may be elevatedor depressed, as may be desired.

In order that the trip-arms 4 and 4 may normally stand in verticaloperative position, I employ the device now to be described. Secured toeach of the shafts 3 3 is an arm 13, (see Figs. 1 and 4,) which at topis connected at opposite sides with adjacent ends of coiled sprlngs 14,the opposite ends of these springs being secured to a threaded bolt 15,passing through cross-heads 16, which is provided with lugs 17, whichslide in grooves or ways 18 in housings 19. By means of nuts on thethreaded bolt 15 the tensions of the spring 14 may be adjusted asdesired. It will be seen that when an arm 13 is swung to the right oneof the springs will be stretched, while the other one instead of beingcompressed moves bodily upon its support, and that when this arm 13swings in the opposite direction its spring will be moved bodily, whilethe other spring 14 will be stretched, and that thus the two springsconstantly hold the arms 13 and the arms 4 and 4 in normally verticalposition.

Each of the levers 10 (see Fig. 6) constitutes aswitch-arm for anelectric switch, and the pomts 10 and 10 form contacts, with which thearm may be thrown into electrical connection at will. The contact 10 isconnected with the trolley-wire 10 or other feedw re. The point 10 isconnected, as at 10, with the ground or other return conductor. Theplvot 10 is electrically connected with a l1ne-wire 10 terminating ateach end at neighboring turnouts and similarly connected at each endwith like switches. In the line 10' at each turnout is a lamp or lamps10 designed for signaling. It will be understood that at each turnoutthere are two of the switches above described connected as stated andoperated, respectively, by the shafts 3 and 3. The switches andconnections here described are diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 11.It should be understood, however, that the system of electric signalinghere illustrated is by Way of example merely and that I do not limit myinvention to this system, for obviously my automatic switching devicemay be employed for controlling other signaling devices and systems.

A downwardly-projecting plunger 20 is vertically movable in a guide-box21, supported upon the truck-frame of a car. The plunger is heldnormally elevated by means of a spring 22, coiled about the shank of theplunger and interposed between the top of the guide-box 21 and the headof the shank. The top of the plunger 21 is engaged by one arm of abell-crank lever 23, pivoted, as at 24, upon a bracket 25, secured tothe bottom of the body of the car. The other arm of the bell-crank lever23 is connected, by means of a connecting-rod 26, with a crank-arm 27,se cured to the bottom end of a staff 28,- supported and carrying at topa hand-crank 29 within convenient reach of the operator. The movement ofthis crank lowers the plunger 20, which is raised by-its spring 22 whenthe handle is released. While I have described one of the plungers 20and its actuating mechanism, it should be understood that there are apair of these plungers side by side which travel in the vertical planeof and are capable of being thrown into engagement with the arms 4 and4*. Each of these plungers is supported and actuated in the manner abovedescribed, the two connecting rods being pivotally secured,respectively, at their forward ends to crank-arms 27 on the bottom ofthe staff 28. (See Fig. 10.) There is a pair of plungers 20 on each sideof the car disposed at opposite sides of each of the rails and invertical line with thefour upwardly-projecting arms 4 and 4*. (See Fig.1.) The construction and operation of one pair of plungers has beendescribed. The other pair of plungers is supported in the same manner asthe first pair of plungers and are actuated by similar bell-crank leversand connectingrods 26; but the latter pair of connectingrods at theirforward end are pivotally connected with a pair of crank-arms 27 securedto the bottom end of a hollow staff 28, having at top a crank 29*. Thestaff 28 is longer than the hollow staff 28* and passes through the boreof the hollow staff and projects beyond the hollow staff at both ends.

It will be seen that by giving the crank 29 a quarter-turn in onedirection one of its movable plungers is thrust downwardly, while bygiving this crank a quarter-turn in the opposite direction the other ofits plungers is thrust downwardly. It will also be seen that spring 22holds the plunger nor- .mally elevated and the crank normally inposition for operation in either direction. It will also be seen that alike movement of the crank-arm 29 will in like manner actuate manuallyhold the levers 29 29 while the plunger is in operative position, Iprovide a locking mechanism for holding the plunger which may be inuse'in lowered position. In Fig. 7, 30 is a bell-crank lever, fulcrumed,

as at 31, upon a bracket secured to the bot- 5 tom of the front platformof the car. The forward downwardly-projecting portion of the lever 30consists of two arms 30* and 30 the former being adapted to engagenotches 32 (see Fig. 10) in the hub of the crank-arms 27 on staff 28,the latter .being adapted to engage in like manner notches 33 in the hub28 of the staff 28*. A spring 34 holds the horizontal arm of thebell-crank lever 30 elevated, so that when either of the staffs 28 28"is turned the fingers 30 30 will be automatically brought intoengagement with the notches 32 33. The horizontal arm of the lever 30carries a vertical rod which projects upwardly from the floor of thefront platform of the car and has at top a foot-piece 35 withinconvenient reach of the operator. When either of the staffs 28 28 havebeen turned and locked by the spring-controlled bell-crank lever 30, thelock may be disengaged by pressing upon the foot-piece.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, 1s-

1. In a device of the described character, a railway, a shaft j ournaledtransversely of the railway, and two members connected with said shaftand adapted for engagement with a vehicle movable upon the railway, thearrangement of said two members being such that their like movementsactuate the shaft in opposite directions.

I 2. In a device of the described character, a shaft journaledtransversely of a railway, a pair of upwardly-projecting arms whoseidentical movements actuate the shaft in opposite directions, anindicator controlled by to throw the proper the Shaft and signalingdevices controlled by the indicator.

3. In a device of the described character, a railway, a pair of shaftsournaled transversely thereof, a pair of upwardly-projecting arms foreach of said shafts, indicatortargets, connections intermediate theshafts and targets for actuating the targets, signals, means governed bythe movement of the shafts for controlling the signals, a vehicle uponthe railway, and means upon the vehicle for engaging at will either ofsaid upwardly-projecting arms.

4. In a device of the described character, a single-track railway, aseries of turnouts for the railway, signaling devices at each turnout,connections between the signaling devices of neighboring turnouts,indicator-tan gets at each turnout, means for actuating the signalingdevices in harmony with the position of the indicator-targets, and meansfor actuating the targets from a vehicle moving upon the railway.

5. In a device of the described character, a railway, a pair of shaftsjournaled transversely of the railway, a pair of arms for each of saidshafts, said pairs being arranged by their like movements to rotatetheir respective shafts in opposite directions, a pair of rocker-armsconnected with said pair of shafts, indicator-targets mounted upon saidrocker-arms, signaling devices controlled by said rocker-arms, and meansfor at will engaging either of said first-mentioned arms with movablemembers mounted upon a vehicle moving upon said railway.

6. In a device of the described character, a railway, a vehicle thereon,two concentric staffs thereon, a handle for the top of each of thestaffs, a crank for the bottom of each of the staffs, a pair of rodsconnected with each of said cranks, a vertically-movable memberconnected with each of said rods, a piece disposed in the lower path ofand adapted to contact with each of said vertically-movable members, andsignaling devices adapted to be controlled by such contact.

In testimony whereof I afliX my'signature in presence of two witnesses.

SAML. CHOATE HARVEY.

Witnesses:

CLEM V. WAGNER. M. L. MARKS.

